New method could lead to endless battery by capturing energy from the sun and unused light, from the OLED displays! But, wait, seems this still needs time.

A researcher from the London Centre for Nanotechonolgy has managed to squeeze solar power cells into OLED displays.

This, of course, could lead to convert sun light into energy that can be used to recharge a device's central battery unit.

The best bit, though, is that Ahnood’s cells take the form of a thin film, much like OLED and LCD displays themselves. The idea is to bond this photovoltaic layer to the stack of films that make up an OLED display (pictured below), ultimately producing OLED screens that automatically harvest wasted light. Furthermore, because OLED and LCDs are not completely opaque, these thin-film photovoltaics also gather ambient light, be it from overhead lights or the sun.

Well, sounds very interesting, but seems that -for now-, his findings only offer a small amount of supplemental energy. At the moment, Ahnood’s system — which includes a supercapacitor and some circuitry — has an average efficiency of 11%; significantly lower than commercial photovoltaics that are reaching 30%, but remember that’s free energy.

Like I said, the concept is very interesting, and there's no doubt that this will eventually lead to rechargable smartphones by using only Sun's Energy, resulting in a virtually limitless energy supply.

1) Cell for many many times is in the pocket.
2) Cell can't rest under the sun because circuit and batter can't be exposed to sun temperature.
3) If you need to use it, where it leave, near a windows!?!.

mha...

billysastard

01-22-2012, 09:23 PM

i dont know about anyone else but i keep my phone in my pocket when i'm not using it so solar is no use whatsoever.

Infinite_zero

01-23-2012, 04:06 PM

I read about this a few days ago on IGN. The idea is any light, including the wasted light from the OLED display is caught and then redirected as energy through the solar cells. I don't think at the moment its viable for "endless battery life" but it is an interesting concept. The IGN link in the sources has more info.